Snow Kissed

Chapter 4

I woke up.

Shivering.

Remembering where I was.

Covering my shoulder, I attempted to warm my body, the tip of my nose even cold. The room had been so warm when I had drifted off and now, it was a freeze zone.

I noticed some light filtering in from the pulled back curtain and sat up abruptly to see the morning weather, causing myself more aching and pain during the process.

Hobbling over, I peered out, pulling the thick curtains back to get a better view. I squinted as my eyes adjusted to the light, expecting the sun or something, but all that was there was millions and millions of snowflakes. I felt my anger boiling. I actually was snowed in with some stranger!

I turned sharply and grabbed my jeans, dressing. I wasn't going to sit and let my whole entire - okay, my few friends, think I was dead! No way, no how.

I fumbled out of his flannel shirt and put on my ripped one, but I got a chill and decided the flannel was still necessary.

I burst out of the room and walked to the door, trying to find my boots, which I did find. My black suede high-end lovelies, which were muddy and ruined.

“Argh!” I shrilled, staring at them.

“Amy?”

I heard him groaning and I glanced over my shoulder as I struggled with the boots. He sat up slowly on the couch and rubbed his face.

“Amy, what are you doing?”

“I'm leaving,” I shot, almost toppling to the floor.

“What--” he got off the couch in only his boxers and I stared at him for point of a second too long.

“I'm leaving, are you hard of hearing?”

“Amy, you can't leave. Where are you going to go?” He found a shirt and pulled it on before walking over, still in his boxers, mind you, but at least he had his jeans in one hand.

“Thanks for saving me, but I don’t know, I can't stay here. Elizabeth likely thinks I'm dead!”

“Well...” he sighed, “Amy...”

I grabbed the door and started to unlock it.

“You'll get hypothermia, you can't go out there.” He grabbed my arm.

“Get off me!” I flung myself away from him, the pain getting the best of me as I tripped back into the door.

“Amy,” he steadied me, “I can't let you go out there.”

“This is kidnapping.”

He looked baffled and he should have been because I was talking crazy. “I don't think you fully understand.”

I rolled my eyes and it felt so good to do so. “I'll be fine!” Then I turned and opened the door, the freezing wind hit me, blowing snow directly into my face. I took in a ragged breath and slammed the door shut.

“I told you,” He said casually from behind.

I didn't give up easily. I hadn't climbed to the top of a multi-million dollar company by giving up.

“Give me your keys,” I demanded.

Ean creased his brow and shook his head. “It's snowed in.”

“Don't you have a plow!”

“I have an ATV that I will use to get out of my steep driveway once the snow stops,” he told me, “But right now, that truck isn't going anywhere.”

“This is complete entrapment,” I shot at him, “Give me the keys.”

He sighed and reached above my head as I slammed myself into the wall frightened by his advancement.

“Here,” he handed me the keys, “Good luck.”

I took them from him and looked them over. For one, the key chain had like fifteen keys on it and I had no idea which went to his truck.

“Amy...”

I grabbed the door and walked out. My body froze as soon as I hit the outside air.

“Amy,” he called as I waded through the snow drifts towards the white pickup. My teeth beginning to chatter more with every agonizing step.

“Amy!”

I waved my hand in the air and trudged forward, sinking suddenly into a deep patch.

“Amy!”

I got myself free and searched his keys once I was within distance to the driver's side door. “Why don't you have power locks!”

I heard his amusement from the background.

“What kind of person doesn’t have power locks...” I grumbled, he lived like a perfect Bushman. I picked out a key I thought might work. It did, but it wasn't turning.

“Get in here, Amy!”

“No! I'll get it!” I put my weight into it and the key snapped, breaking off, sending the rest of my body weight forward and into the side of the truck.

“Ow!” I shouted, falling into the deep snow as my head collided with the vehicle.

“Amy!”

I groaned, as the snow fell all over my face and I stared up at the big grey sky in consequence. Waiting to be saved by him.

And then he was there, right on cue. Ean appeared above me, looking down at my snow impaled body. “Are you giving up now?”

I held my hand up in the air with the broken key, “I broke your key. Sorry.”

He laughed. “And you're a vice president?” He moved over me, lifting me out of the snow with ease and walked us back to the house. “Do I need to perform another rapid body search on you?”

I stared up at him with no words, my hands, my face, and my legs all numb. “What?”

He shook the snow from his head and pulled off his boots, closing the door. “It was a joke, sort of.”

I started to shiver and he watched me do so.

“You're a bit difficult, aren’t you, Amy?”

“I don't like... d-depending on anyone, b-but m-myself,” I clambered out pathetically.

He smiled, nodding slowly. Then stepped up to me and started to take off the flannel shirt I wore full of snow. He shook it out, hanging it up on a nearby coat rack.

“Do you need another escort to the couch or can you manage?”

It was like this situation was funny for him, or that's all I could use as the excuse for his constant amusement. “Here. Let me.”

I grumbled as he crouched down, removing my boots for me after my tiresome attempts to so myself. Gripping under my knee and prying the fashionable boots off my frozen feet one at a time, his bear-paw like hands were impressively nimble.

I tried to figure out why he was still so nice to me. Technically, I just broke something of his; he should have been more concerned. I would be if someone broke my key off in my car door in a fit of stupidity.

“I'll pay for the door to get fixed,” I mumbled in embarrassment.

“Don't worry about it,” he chuckled. “I can probably fix it myself. Come sit down. I'll get the fire going.”

I looked up at him, realizing now how tall he really was just then. Definitely over six feet, he had at least six inches on me in general. My head calculated close to six foot three in the end.

He nudged my shoulder to turn me toward the living room and I shuffled across the wood floors and sunk into the couch with his aid.

He gathered the blanket's he'd been sleeping in and put them over my legs. “I'm going to get some wood. Just stay here.”

I heard him walk away and dress in boots before going outside into the minus whatever conditions.

I brought the blankets over my shoulders and watched the embers in the fire crack and burn. He should have been keeping it going all night; then we wouldn't be freezing in the morning. If I was going to stay longer, that would have to be a must.

The door shot open and he was back in with split pine that when he walked past me with it, had a calming smell.

He dropped the dry logs to the stone and started to get it going again, “So, maybe we can begin the morning over. How was your sleep?”

I watched him stand and turn to me. “It was pretty good.”

“Yeah, I love that bed. I'm going to try the radio in a bit, see if I can get someone in town to alert your friends you're okay.”

“Thanks, Ean.”

“Coffee?”

“Yes, please.” I needed hot, buzzing liquid like my life depended on it.

He walked to the kitchen and started the pot.

I noticed now in the daylight, the unique chandelier hanging over the timber dining table. “That's different.”

He glanced to where I was pointing at the chandelier made out of antlers and smiled with pride. “I made it.”

“You made it?” I was stunned by the man's creativity.

“Yep,” he nodded. “I collected all the antlers from hunts.”

Bushman screamed at me again in my mind. I watched him load the coffee maker. My eyes wandering to his nice toned arms and thick shoulders, at least he was a well muscled Bushman with fitted clothing.

“So, I was going to decorate a tree today,” he said, breaking the silence.

“What?” I snapped my eyes up to him from where they'd found fixation on his abdomen.

“Well, tomorrow's Christmas Eve and all.” But he lived alone, who would waste time decorating a tree if they lived alone?

“Oh,” I said sharply, looking at my nails and taking in the weak state of most of them.

“Yeah, it's just out the door. I'll bring it in for us in a bit. Do you want to help me?”

I slowly looked up to him, thinking him bat shit crazy. No, I most certainly did not wish to do that but his expression was pathetic and it irked my core with guilt.

“I guess,” I grunted, trying to appease him after all, I had just acted like a lunatic and he had been pretty fair about it.